To the state of the art hub-bearing assemblies of the flanged type for application to driving wheels of a motor vehicle are already known. An example is described in European patent EP 1031439 B1 and comprises a radially outer ring, a pair of radially inner rings and a double row of rolling elements (in this application, spheres) radially interposed between the outer ring and the pair of inner rings. The outer ring has a cylindrical external surface adapted to be forced with interference to insert the bearing in a cylindrical seat formed in the knuckle of a suspension. The radially inner rings are mounted on a steel flanged hub, rotationally coupled in a known way to the end portion of a spindle or an axle shaft of the transmission unit of a motor vehicle.
The flanged hub has a flange portion in which are formed the holes for a plurality of fastening means (for example, stud bolts) that connect in a known way an element of the wheel of the motor vehicle, for example the brake disc, to the flanged hub.
Such an embodiment requires that the flange portion of the flanged hub has high mechanical resistance characteristics. This implies that the flanged hub are made of high-strength material (steel, in the cited prior art), in order to limit the thickness and therefore the overall dimensions of the flanged portion. Alternatively, the flanged hub can be realized with a high thickness of the flanged portion, thus penalizing the overall axial dimensions, if they are made of lighter but also less resistant materials, for example aluminum or other light alloy. Therefore, the known solutions have the drawback of not allowing to obtain a flanged hub that is both lightweight and has small dimensions.